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Names of God in Islam
According to tradition (hadith) there are 99 names of God in Islam, known as the ( ) "Beautiful Names of God" ( also "Beautiful Names"). Abdullah Saeed, The Qur'an: An Introduction, pg. 63. London: Routledge, 2008. ISBN 9781134102945 According to 9th-century collections of hadith, the tradition of there being "99 names" is sahih (reliable), while the tradition of the actual list of 99 names as given by some collectors, in at least three different variants, is stated to be gharib (scarce, unreliable).Al-Tirmidhi says in his Sunan, "This (version of the) hadith is scarce; it has been narrated from various routes on the authority of Abu Hurairah, but we do not know of the mention of the Names in the numerous narrations, except this one." Richard Shelquist (wahiduddin.net) Most names in these lists are divine epithets taken from the text of the Quran, with a minority based in oral tradition or Sunnah. The lists of names vary because there are more than 99 such epithets to choose from. Origin in Kuwait.]] In the hadith, Muhammad is said to have invoked God by a number of names.Ibn Majah, Book of Duʿa; Malik ibn Anas, Muwatta Imam Malik. The origin of the number 99 specifically is commonly attributed to a hadith considered weak, although there are less-commonly cited hadith that are considered authentic and also support the same point.Diane Morgan, Essential Islam: A Comprehensive Guide to Belief and Practice, p. 10. Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2010. ISBN 9780313360251 According to : The Quran refers to God's "most beautiful Names" (al-ʾasmāʾ al-ḥusná).See the surahs "al-A'raf" (7:180), "al-Isra" (17:110), "Ta-Ha" (20:8) and "al-Hashr" (59:24). Gerhard Böwering refers to Sura 17:110 as the locus classicus to which explicit lists of 99 names used to be attached in Quranic commentary. A cluster of more than a dozen Divine epithets which are included in such lists is found in Sura 22:22–24. Mystic philosopher Ibn Arabi surmised that the 99 names are "outward signs of the universe's inner mysteries". Most, though not all, of the traditionally listed 99 names are found somewhere in the Quran itself. The others are taken from the hadith.Martin Parsons, Unveiling God, pg. 206. William Carey Library, 2005. ISBN 9780878084548Juan Eduardo Campo, Encyclopedia of Islam, pg. 515. Infobase Publishing, 2009. ISBN 9781438126968 The list is not necessarily fixed, as more than 99 divine epithets can be adduced from Quran and hadith combined,Susanne Enderwitz, "The 99: Islamic Superheroes - A New Species." Taken from Transcultural Turbulences: Towards a Multi-Sited Reading of Image Flows, pgs. 84-85. Springer, 2011. ISBN 9783642183935. The 99 names of Allah; the ‘Most Beautiful Names’ at BBC Online. Accessed 8 April 2014. although the list of names given in modern sources is mostly that compiled by al-Walid ibn Muslim. Lists of names There is no universal agreement among Muslims as to what exactly counts as a name of Allah, and what does not. Additionally, while some names are only in the Qur'an, and others are only in the hadith, there are some names which appear in both. Different sources give different lists of the 99 names. The following list is based on the one found in the Jamiʿ at-Tirmidhi (9th century). Other hadith, such as those of al-Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Majah, al-Hakim or Ibn ʿAsākir, have variant lists. All attribute the original compilation of the list of names to Abu Hurairah. Al-Tirmidhi comments on his list: "This (version of the) hadith is gharib scarce; it has been narrated from various routes on the authority of Abu Hurairah, but we do not know of the mention of the Names in the numerous narrations, except this one." Various early Muslim exegetes, including Jaʿfar al-Sadiq, Sufyan ibn `Uyaynah, Ibn Hazm, al-Qurtubi, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, have given their own versions of lists of 99 names. Suhaib Hassan, Introduction to the Science of Hadith Classification (ahya), cited after Richard Shelquist (wahiduddin.net) Islamic mysticism In Islamic mysticism there is a tradition to the effect that the 99 names of God point to a mystical "Greatest Name" (Ismul A'dham, الإسم الأعظم). This "Greatest Name of Allah" is said to be "the one which if He Allah is called (prayed to) by it, He will Answer." The endnote states: "Ibn Májah, Sunan, 34. (Kitáb ad-Du'á), ch. 9, no. 3856, vol. 2, p. 1267. See also: Ad-Dárimí, Sunan, 23 (Fada'il al-Qur'án), ch. 15, no. 3296, vol. 2, pp. 324-5. Similar statements in Shi'i tradition include: Majlisí, Bihár al-Anwár, vol. 26. p. 7." According to a hadith narrated by Abdullah ibn Masud, some of the names of God have also been hidden from mankind. Theophoric given names A Muslim may not be given any of the 99 names of God in exactly the same form. For example, nobody may be named al-Malik "the King", but may be named Malik "King". This is because of the belief that God is almighty, and no human being is the equivalent of God, and no human being will ever be the equivalent of God. Muslims are allowed to use the 99 names of God for themselves but should not put 'Al' at the front of them.http://www.muslimnamesworld.com/news/information/namegiving/prohibited-muslim-names/ However the names of God can be combined with the word "‘Abd-", which means "slave" (of God) and are commonly used as Arabic name among Muslims, such as Abd al-Rahman. The two parts of the name may be written separately (as above) or combined as one transliterated name; in such a case, the vowel transcribed after "Abd" is often written as u''' when the two words are transcribed as one: e.g., Abdurrahman, Abdul'aziz, "Abdul Jabbar", or even Abdullah ("Servant of God"). (This has to do with Arabic case vowels, the final '''u vowel showing the normal "quote" nominative/vocative case form: ʿabdu.) Some Muslim people have names resembling those 99. Examples include: * Rahmaan, such as Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais. * Salaam, such as Salam Fayyad. * Jabbaar, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. * Hakeem, such as Sherman "Abdul Hakim" Jackson. * Ra'oof, such as Ra'ouf Mus'ad. * Malik, such as Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X). * Abdul Muqtedar as in M. A. Muqtedar Khan. Use in Bahá'í Bahá'í sources state that the 100th name was revealed as "Bahá’" ( "glory, splendor"), which appears in the words Bahá'u'lláh and Bahá'í. They also believe that it is the greatest name of God. The Báb wrote a noted pentagram-shaped tablet with 360 derivatives of the word "Bahá'" used in it. According to Bahá'í scholar ‘Abdu’l-Hamíd Ishráq-Khávari, Bahāʾ al-dīn al-ʿĀmilī adopted the Persian poetic pen name "Bahāʾ" after being inspired by the words of the fifth Twelver Imam, Muhammad al-Baqir, and the sixth Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq, who stated that the greatest name of God was included in either the Duʿāʾu l-Bahāʾ, a dawn prayer for Ramadan, or the Aʿmal ʿam Dawūd. In the first verse of the duʿāʾu l-Bahāʾ, the name "Bahāʾ" appears four times. See also * Basmala * List of Arabic theophoric names * Names of God * Names of God in Judaism * Sahasranama, the Hindu lists of 1000 names of God. * The 99, a comic book based on the 99 names of God in Islam. * The Nine Billion Names of God, a short story by Arthur C. Clarke. References * ʾIbrahīm bin ʿAlī al-Kafʿamī (1436-1500 CE), al-Maqām al-asnā fī tafsīr al-asmāʼ al-ḥusnā. Beirut: Dār al-Hādī (1992) (WorldCat listing). External links * Al-Rahman al-Rahim. Problems of Interpretation and Translation *Richard Shelquist, The Beautiful Names of Allah (wahiduddin.net) * 99 Names of Allah (ul.org.au) * Oil paintings of all the 99 names of Allah. Category:Islam-related lists Category:Allah